Sorry, what is a “modem delete”, and how does all of this work if you just don’t choose to buy a router from your ISP at the time you first order an Internet plan from them? Like, it’s included there as a standard option with most ISPs, and they have instructions that at the very least seem simple (usually just making sure you have PPPoE with the right connection details, or IPoE set) to use.
So, in my case, I had a modem router model by a company called SmartRG. Details aside, I pretty much instantly put it into bridged mode so it wouldn’t participate in the IP routing. That modem did modem things only.
The connection went from provider phone line to SmartRG to my firewall.
I was weird and got a set of WAN IP addresses, so I put a router in front of everything to handle that, so the connection went from provider line, to modem, to router, to firewall.
It’s not super relevant, but the router I was using was a Cisco 1911. This is a semi modular enterprise router. The modular part, which will be important later, is in the form of “WIC” modules, or “WAN Interface Card” modules. The 1911 has two.
Anyways, I managed to get a WIC that supported VDSL2 with all the options and configuration that my ISP used. Happened to be the ehwic-va-dsl-m. Long story short, this module would integrate with my router and act as a modem of sorts to “translate” to the provider line. When I implemented this, I basically threw out my SmartRG. The phone line went directly into my router. So the connection was from the provider line, into my router, then to my firewall.
So the modem was “deleted”.
Another instance was for a fiber GPON line. The provider in this case, gave you a modem with a GPON connection, but they didn’t really tell anyone that the GPON interface was just a plain old SFP transceiver. So I pulled the SFP, put it into the firewall and threw out the modem. The provider line went right into their module in my firewall. The modem was effectively “deleted”
The idea of a modem delete is to remove whatever standalone device the provider has converting their signal (DSL, cable, or fiber) into Ethernet, and effectively plug that into your gateway.
It’s not always possible.
I’m currently looking for an option to do a modem delete for a local ISP that’s switched to xgs-pon. They put out a modem router for it that has the transceiver built in, so there’s no way to extract it and plug it into something else.
I’m hopeful I’ll find a SFP+ module like I found for the GPON ISP in my area.
Sorry, what is a “modem delete”, and how does all of this work if you just don’t choose to buy a router from your ISP at the time you first order an Internet plan from them? Like, it’s included there as a standard option with most ISPs, and they have instructions that at the very least seem simple (usually just making sure you have PPPoE with the right connection details, or IPoE set) to use.
So, in my case, I had a modem router model by a company called SmartRG. Details aside, I pretty much instantly put it into bridged mode so it wouldn’t participate in the IP routing. That modem did modem things only.
The connection went from provider phone line to SmartRG to my firewall.
I was weird and got a set of WAN IP addresses, so I put a router in front of everything to handle that, so the connection went from provider line, to modem, to router, to firewall.
It’s not super relevant, but the router I was using was a Cisco 1911. This is a semi modular enterprise router. The modular part, which will be important later, is in the form of “WIC” modules, or “WAN Interface Card” modules. The 1911 has two.
Anyways, I managed to get a WIC that supported VDSL2 with all the options and configuration that my ISP used. Happened to be the ehwic-va-dsl-m. Long story short, this module would integrate with my router and act as a modem of sorts to “translate” to the provider line. When I implemented this, I basically threw out my SmartRG. The phone line went directly into my router. So the connection was from the provider line, into my router, then to my firewall.
So the modem was “deleted”.
Another instance was for a fiber GPON line. The provider in this case, gave you a modem with a GPON connection, but they didn’t really tell anyone that the GPON interface was just a plain old SFP transceiver. So I pulled the SFP, put it into the firewall and threw out the modem. The provider line went right into their module in my firewall. The modem was effectively “deleted”
The idea of a modem delete is to remove whatever standalone device the provider has converting their signal (DSL, cable, or fiber) into Ethernet, and effectively plug that into your gateway.
It’s not always possible.
I’m currently looking for an option to do a modem delete for a local ISP that’s switched to xgs-pon. They put out a modem router for it that has the transceiver built in, so there’s no way to extract it and plug it into something else.
I’m hopeful I’ll find a SFP+ module like I found for the GPON ISP in my area.